NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES

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Comment by Richard A. Young on March 29, 2010 at 5:50pm

Welcome, Rev. Dr. Joan B-Gosh, and God's Comedian, and one of my 1st friends on BPN "LaSalle LaSalle!" our new members of NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES!!!

Comment by Richard A. Young on March 24, 2010 at 5:16pm

Welcome to our new members! Tonite at New Christian South in Chicago Heights, IL., YouthMovement! @ 6:30pm; tomorrow, Pray4Me Intercessory Prayer Call @ 7pm; Friday, Fellowship Service! @ the Levy Center in Evanston, IL. Visit our website or call 708/497-8671 for more details.

Comment by Richard A. Young on March 6, 2010 at 2:36pm

Please participate in the discussion. Discussion Forum now open! Text of Pastor Young's message: "Abundant Living" now posted on main wall.

Comment by Richard A. Young on March 4, 2010 at 2:00pm

Join me for Pray4Me! Intercessory Prayer Call tonight at 7:00pm CST. Call: 605/475-4800, enter conference code: 646497.

Comment by Richard A. Young on March 4, 2010 at 1:57pm

Please join the Discussion Forum now open!

Comment by Richard A. Young on March 3, 2010 at 7:36pm

NCLM Online WORDStudy Discussion begins tomorrow, Thursday, March 4, 2010. Please join in throughout the week offering opinions, thoughts, inspiriations and insights. Also, encourage others to join!

Comment by Richard A. Young on February 27, 2010 at 7:28am

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader" with 15% of the vote.[1] Jackson was born Jesse Louis Burns in Greenville, South Carolina, to Helen Burns, a 16-year-old single mother when he was born. His biological father, Noah Louis Robinson, a former professional boxer and a prominent figure in the black community, was married to another woman when Jesse was born. He was not involved in his son's life. In 1943, two years after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, who would adopt Jesse 14 years later. Jesse went on to take the surname of his stepfather. Jackson attended Sterling High School, a segregated high school in Greenville, where he was a student-athlete. Upon graduating in 1959, he rejected a contract from a professional baseball team so that he could attend the racially integrated University of Illinois on a football scholarship.[2] However, one year later, Jackson transferred to North Carolina A&T located in Greensboro, North Carolina. There are differing accounts for the reasons behind this transfer. Jackson claims that the change was based on the school's racial biases which included his being unable to play as a quarterback despite being a star quarterback at his high school. ESPN.com however suggests that claims of racial discrimination on the football team may be exaggerated because Illinois's starting quarterback that year was an African American, although it does not mention factors besides the quarterback's race which may have contributed to this perception (such as team dynamics or interpersonal interactions with other players on the team).[3] Jackson also mentions being demoted by his speech professor as an alternate in a public speaking competition team despite the support of his teammates who elected him a place on the team for his superior abilities.[2] Jackson left Illinois at the end of his second semester after being placed on academic probation. Following his graduation from A&T, Jackson attended the Chicago Theological Seminary with the intent of becoming a minister, but dropped out in 1966 to focus full-time on the civil rights movement.[4] He was ordained in 1968, without a theological degree; awarded an honorary theological doctorate from Chicago in 1990; and received his Master of Divinity Degree based on his previous credits earned, plus his life experience and subsequent work, in 2000.[5][6] Jackson married Jacqueline Lavinia Brown (born 1944) on, December 31, 1962,[7][8] and they had five children: Santita (1963), Jesse Jr. (1965), Jonathan Luther (1966), Yusef DuBois (1970), and Jacqueline Lavinia (1975).[9]
In 2001, Jackson was shown to have had an affair with a staffer, Karin Stanford, that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Ashley, in May 1999. According to CNN, in August 1999, The Rainbow Push Coalition had paid Stanford $15,000 in moving expenses and $21,000 in payment for contracting work. A promised advance of an additional $40,000 against future contracting work was rescinded once the affair became public.[10] This incident prompted Jackson to withdraw from activism for a short time.[11] Separate from the 1999 Rainbow Coalition payments, Jackson pays $4,000 a month in child support.[12]
In 1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by James Bevel, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders in Alabama. When Jackson returned from Selma, he threw himself into SCLC's effort to establish a beachhead of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Chicago.
In 1966, King and Bevel selected Jackson to be head of the SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, and SCLC promoted him to be the national director in 1967. Following the example of Reverend Leon Sullivan of Philadelphia, a key goal of the new group was to foster “selective buying” (boycotts) as a means to pressure white businesses to hire blacks and purchase goods and services from black contractors. One of Sullivan's precursors was Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a wealthy South Side doctor and entrepreneur and key financial contributor to Operation Breadbasket. Before he moved to Chicago from Mississippi in 1956, Howard, as the head of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, had successfully organized a boycott against service stations that refused to provide restrooms for blacks.[13]
When King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, the day after his famous "I’ve been to the mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple, Jackson was in the parking lot one floor below. Jackson's appearance on NBC's Today Show, wearing the same blood-stained turtleneck that he had worn the day before, drew criticism from several King aides; some King associates also dispute Jackson's description of his personal involvement and also of the sequence of events surrounding the assassination.[14]
Jackson has been known for commanding public attention since he first started working for King in 1966. His primary goal for this attention has been to give blacks a sense of self-worth.[15]
Beginning in 1968, Jackson increasingly clashed with Ralph Abernathy, King's successor as chairman of SCLC. In December, 1971, they had a complete falling out. Abernathy suspended Jackson for “administrative improprieties and repeated acts of violation of organizational policy.” Jackson resigned, called together his allies, and Operation PUSH was born during the same month. The new group was organized in the home of Dr. T.R.M. Howard who also became a member of the board of directors and chair of the finance committee.
In 1984, Jackson organized the Rainbow Coalition, which later merged, in 1996, with Operation PUSH. The newly formed Rainbow PUSH organization brought his role as an important and effective organizer to the mainstream. Al Sharpton also left the SCLC in protest to follow Jackson and formed the National Youth Movement.[16]
In March 2006, an African-American woman accused three white members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team of raping her. During the ensuing controversy, Jackson stated that his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would pay for the rest of her college tuition regardless of the outcome of the case. The case against the three men was later thrown out and the players were declared innocent by the North Carolina Attorney General.[17]
In 1995, Jackson made headlines again when he wrote to the Fox network protesting an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in which one protagonist, the "White Ranger," appeared to extol the virtues of "White Power". Jackson later retracted his statement, but Fox nonetheless censored the line in future airings.
Jackson took a key role in the scandal caused by comedic actor Michael Richards' racially charged comments in November 2006. Richards called Jackson a few days after the incident to apologize; Jackson accepted Richards' apology [18] and met with him publicly as a means of resolving the situation. Jackson also joined black leaders in a call for the elimination of the "N-word" throughout the entertainment industry.[
During the 1980s, he achieved wide fame as an African American leader and as a politician, as well as becoming a well-known spokesman for civil rights issues. His influence extended to international matters in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1983, Jackson traveled to Syria to secure the release of a captured American pilot, Navy Lt. Robert Goodman who was being held by the Syrian government. Goodman had been shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country. After a dramatic personal appeal that Jackson made to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Goodman was released. Initially, the Reagan administration was skeptical about Jackson's trip to Syria. However, after Jackson secured Goodman's release, United States President Ronald Reagan welcomed both Jackson and Goodman to the White House on January 4, 1984[20]. This helped to boost Jackson's popularity as an American patriot and served as a springboard for his 1984 presidential run. In June 1984, Jackson negotiated the release of twenty-two Americans being held in Cuba after an invitation by Cuban president Fidel Castro.[21]
He traveled to Kenya in 1997 to meet with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi as United States President Bill Clinton's special envoy for democracy to promote free and fair elections. In April 1999, during the Kosovo War, Jackson traveled to Belgrade to negotiate the release of three U.S. POWs captured on the Macedonian border while patrolling with a UN peacekeeping unit. He met with the then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević, who later agreed to release the three men.[22]
His international efforts continued into the 2000s. On February 15, 2003, Jackson spoke in front of over an estimated one million people in Hyde Park, London at the culmination of the anti-war demonstration against the imminent invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and the United Kingdom. In November 2004, Jackson visited senior politicians and community activists in Northern Ireland in an effort to encourage better cross-community relations and rebuild the peace process and restore the governmental institutions of the Belfast Agreement. In August 2005, Jackson traveled to Venezuela to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, following controversial remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson in which he implied that Chávez should be assassinated. Jackson condemned Robertson's remarks as immoral. After meeting with Chávez and addressing the Venezuelan Parliament, Jackson said that there was no evidence that Venezuela posed a threat to the U.S. Jackson also met representatives from the Afro Venezuela and indigenous communities.[23]
In 2005, he was enlisted as part of the United Kingdom's "Operation Black Vote", a campaign run by Simon Woolley to encourage more of Britain's ethnic minorities to vote in political elections ahead of the May 2005 General Election.[24]
Jackson inherited the Crown prince of the Agni people of Côte d'Ivoire from Michael Jackson. On August, he was crowned Prince Côte Nana by Amon N'Douffou V, King of Krindjabo, who rules more than a million Agni tribespeople.[25]
1984 presidential campaign


Jackson in 1983
Main article: Jesse Jackson presidential campaign, 1984
On November 3, 1983, he announced his campaign for presidency.[26] In 1984, Jackson became the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat.
In the primaries, Jackson, who had been written off by pundits as a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination, surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984,[27] and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi.[28]
As he had gained 21% of the popular vote but only 8% of delegates, he afterwards complained that he had been handicapped by party rules. While Mondale (in the words of his aides) was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential candidate by picking a woman or visible minority, Jackson criticized the screening process as a "p.r. parade of personalities". He also mocked Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul–Minneapolis" area.[29]
Remarks about Jews
Jackson used "Hymies" to mean Jews and "Hymietown" to mean New York City while talking with the Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman in January 1984. Jackson denied making the remarks and then said Jews were conspiring against him. When he finally did acknowledge that it was wrong to use the term, he said he did so in private to a reporter.[30] Finally, Jackson apologized during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue, but continuing suspicions have led to an enduring split between Jackson and many Jews.[30]
Among Jackson's other remarks were that Richard Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five [of Nixon's top advisors] are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia"; that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust"; and that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs". In 1979, Jackson said on a trip to the Middle East that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was a "terrorist," and Israel was a "theocracy."[31] Jackson has since apologized for at least some of these remarks and was later invited to speak in support of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.[32]
1988 presidential campaign
Main article: Jesse Jackson presidential campaign, 1988
Four years later, in 1988, Jackson once again offered himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. This time, his successes in the past made him a more credible candidate, and he was both better financed and better organized. Although most people did not seem to believe he had a serious chance at winning, Jackson once again exceeded expectations as he more than doubled his previous results, prompting R.W. Apple of the New York Times to call 1988 "the Year of Jackson".[33]
He captured 6.9 million votes and won 11 contests; seven primaries (Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Virginia) and four caucuses (Delaware, Michigan, South Carolina and Vermont).[34] Jackson also scored March victories in Alaska's caucuses and Texas's local conventions, despite losing the Texas primary.[35][36] Briefly, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total number of pledged delegates.


Jackson with Maryland's Sen. Decatur Trotter and Del. Curt Anderson during a Maryland Legislative Black Caucus meeting in Annapolis, Maryland (1988)
In early 1988, Jackson organized a rally at the former American Motors assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, approximately two weeks after new owner Chrysler announced it would close the plant by the end of the year. In his speech, Jackson spoke out against Chrysler's decision, stating "We have to put the focus on Kenosha, Wisconsin, as the place, here and now, where we draw the line to end economic violence!" and compared the workers' fight to that of the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama. As a result, the UAW Local 72 union voted to endorse his candidacy, even against the rules of the UAW.[37] However, Jackson's campaign suffered a significant setback less than two weeks later when he was defeated handily in the Wisconsin primary by Michael Dukakis. Jackson's showing among white voters in Wisconsin was significantly higher than in his 1984 run, but was also noticeably lower than pre-primary polling had indicated it would be. The discrepancy has been cited as an example of the so-called "Bradley effect."[citation needed]
Jackson's campaign had also been interrupted by allegations regarding his half-brother Noah Robinson, Jr.'s criminal activity.[38] Jackson had to answer frequent questions about his brother, who was often referred to as "the Billy Carter of the Jackson campaign".[39]
On the heels of Jackson's narrow loss to Dukakis the day before in Colorado, Dukakis' comfortable win in Wisconsin terminated Jackson's momentum. The victory established Dukakis as the clear Democratic frontrunner, and he went on to claim the party's nomination, but lost the general election in November.[40]
Campaign platform
In both races, Jackson ran on what many considered to be a very liberal platform. Declaring that he wanted to create a "Rainbow Coalition" of various minority groups, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Arab-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, family farmers, the poor and working class, and homosexuals, as well as European American progressives who fit into none of those categories, Jackson ran on a platform that included:
• creating a Works Progress Administration-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans,
• reprioritizing the War on Drugs to focus less on mandatory minimum sentences for drug users (which he views as racially biased) and more on harsher punishments for money-laundering bankers and others who are part of the "supply" end of "supply and demand"
• reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs
• cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration
• declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation
• instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union
• giving reparations to descendants of black slaves
• supporting family farmers by reviving many of Roosevelt's New Deal–era farm programs
• creating a single-payer system of universal health care
• ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment
• increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all
• applying stricter enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and
• supporting the formation of a Palestinian state.
With the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies, none of these positions made it into the party's platform in either 1984 or 1988.
Stand on abortion
Although Jackson was one of the most liberal members of the Democratic Party, his position on abortion were originally more in line with pro-life views. Jackson once endorsed the Hyde Amendment, which bars the funding of abortions through the federal Medicaid program. He wrote an article published in a 1977 National Right to Life Committee News report:
"There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life...that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned. What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have twenty years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth."
However, since then, Jackson has adopted a pro-choice view, believing that abortion is a right and that the government should not prevent a woman from having an abortion.[41]
Later political activities
He ran for office as "shadow senator" for the District of Columbia when the position was created in 1991,[42] and served as such through 1997, when he did not run for re-election. This unpaid position was primarily a post to lobby for statehood for the District of Columbia.[43]
In the mid-1990s, he was approached about being the United States Ambassador to South Africa but declined the opportunity in favor of helping his son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., run for the United States House of Representatives.[44]
While Jackson was initially critical of the "Third Way" or more moderate policies of Bill Clinton, he became a key ally in gaining African American support for Clinton and eventually became a close advisor and friend of the Clinton family. Clinton awarded Jackson the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor bestowed on civilians. His son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., also emerged as a political figure, becoming a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Jesse Jackson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[45] In 2003, Jackson surprised many observers by declining to endorse the campaigns of either Al Sharpton or former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the two African American candidates, in the race for the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination. Instead, Jackson remained largely silent about his preference in the race until late in the primary season, when he allowed Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, another presidential candidate, to speak at a Rainbow/PUSH forum on March 31, 2004. Although he did not explicitly voice an endorsement of Rep. Kucinich, Jackson described Kucinich as "assuming the burden of saying 'you make the most sense, but you can't win.'" He also writes for The Progressive Populist.
Jackson was a target of the 2002 white supremacist terror plot.
2004 presidential election
Jackson gathered information and support to investigate the 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy, particularly the voting results in Ohio and its recount. He called for a congressional debate on the matter, asking for a fair count and national voting standards, saying that the elections in the United States are each run with different standards by different states with partisan tricks, racial bias, and widespread incompetence and are an open scandal.
Jackson said that he held some hope that the election could be overturned, although he admitted that that was very doubtful. Jackson compared the voting irregularities of Ohio to that of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, saying that if Ohio were Ukraine, the U.S. presidential election would not have been certified by the international community. Jackson called Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell inappropriately partisan and said that Blackwell may have been pressured by President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney to deliver Ohio to the Republican Party.
Based on information obtained in hearings held by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and discovered during a flawed recount of the Ohio presidential vote called for by Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik, Jackson suggested that the Ohio voting machines were "rigged" and that some African-Americans were forced to stand in line for six hours in the rain before voting. When asked for evidence, Jackson replied, "Based on distrusting the system, lack of paper trails, the anomaly of the exit polls."
On January 6, 2005, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff released a 100 page report on the Ohio election. This challenge to the Ohio election was rejected by a vote of 74-1 by the United States Senate and 267-31 in the House. Many high-ranking Democrats chose to distance themselves from this debate, including John Kerry, despite Jesse Jackson personally asking Kerry for help. The call for election reform legislation and voting rights protection nonetheless continued.
Terri Schiavo case
In early 2005, Jackson visited the parents in the Terri Schiavo case; he supported their unsuccessful bid to keep her alive.[46]
Firearms protest and arrest
On June 23, 2007 Jackson was arrested in connection with a protest at a gun store in Riverdale, a poor suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Jackson and others were protesting due to allegations that the gun store had been selling firearms to local gang members and was contributing to the decay of the community. According to police reports, Jackson refused to stop blocking the front entrance of the store and let customers pass. He was charged with one count of criminal trespass to property.[47]
2008 presidential election
In March 2007, Jackson declared his support for then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 democratic primaries.[48] Jackson later criticized Barack Obama in 2007 for "acting like he's white," in response to the Jena 6 beating case.[49]
On July 6, 2008, during an interview with Fox News, a microphone picked up Jackson whispering to fellow guest Dr. Reed Tuckson:[50] "See, Barack's been, ahh, talking down to black people on this faith-based... I want to cut his nuts out."[51] Jackson was expressing his disappointment in Obama's Father's Day speech chastisement of Black fathers.[52] Only a portion of Jackson's comments were released on video. A spokesman for Fox News stated that Jackson had "referred to blacks with the N-word" in his comments about Obama; Fox News did not release the entire video or a complete transcript of his comments.[53] Subsequent to his Fox News interview, Jackson apologized and reiterated his support for Obama.[51]
On November 4, 2008, Jackson was present at the Obama victory rally, waiting for Obama to appear. In the several moments before Obama spoke, Jackson was in tears.[54
Wikipedia Online Article

Comment by Richard A. Young on February 26, 2010 at 1:05am

Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who became the first African American Mayor of Chicago, serving from 1983 until his death in 1987. Harold Washington was born on April 15, 1922, to Roy and Bertha Washington. His father had been one of the first precinct captains in the city, a lawyer and a Methodist minister. His mother, Bertha, left a small farm near Centralia, Illinois, to make a fortune in Chicago as a singer. She married Roy soon after arriving in Chicago and had four children with him.
Washington grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, at the time the epicenter of black culture in the city. He attended DuSable High School, then a new segregated high school, and was a member of the first graduating class. In a 1939 citywide track meet, Washington placed first in the 110 meter high hurdles event, and second in the 220 meter low hurdles event. Between his junior and senior year of high school, Washington dropped out, saying that he no longer felt challenged by the classwork. He worked at a meat packing plant for a time before his father helped him get a job at the U.S. Treasury. There he met Dorothy Finch, who he married soon after—Washington was 20, and Dorothy 17. Seven months later, the U.S. was drawn into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
In 1942, Washington was drafted into the war and sent overseas as part of a segregated unit of the Air Force Engineers. In the Philippines, Washington was a part of a unit building runways. Although he preferred combat, at the time blacks were considered neither courageous nor smart enough for combat duty. Eventually, Washington rose to the rank of First Sergeant in the Air Force. In her biography of Harold Washington, Florence Hamlish Levinsohn surmises that the three years Washington spent in the South Pacific fighting for democracy while experiencing racial prejudice and discrimination helped shape Washington's views on racial justice in the mayoral run to come.
[edit] Roosevelt College
In the summer of 1946, Washington enrolled at Roosevelt College (now Roosevelt University). The college was founded in the waning years of World War II, after a revolt by professors of Central YMCA College (known as "The Y"). Edward J. Sparling, former president of the Y, resigned rather than turn over demographic data requested by trustees of the Y. He suspected the data would be used to set up a quota system, preventing returning veterans from enrolling at the Y. With 68 other faculty members, they and many students formed the first integrated private college in Chicago, and one of few in the nation.[2]
Washington joined other groups of students not permitted to be enrolled in other local colleges. Local estimates place the population of the college, 3,948 people strong, at about 1/8 black, 1/2 Jewish, with other races making up the balance. A full 75% of the student had enrolled because of "nondiscriminatory progressive principles."[2]
By December 1946, Washington had fully involved himself in activities at Roosevelt. He chaired a fund-raising drive by students, and then was named to a committee that supported citywide efforts to outlaw restrictive covenants, which were the legal means by which minorities were prohibited from leaving their ghettos.[3]
In 1948, after the college had moved to the Auditorium Building, Washington was elected the third president of Roosevelt's student council. Under his leadership, the student council successfully petitioned the college to have representation on Roosevelt's faculty committees. At the first regional meeting of the newly founded National Student Association in the spring of 1948, Washington and nine other delegates proposed student representation on faculties, and a "Bill of Rights" for students; both measures were roundly defeated.[4]
The next year, Washington went to Springfield to protest Illinois legislators' coming probe of "subversives". The probe would outlaw the Communist Party and require loyalty oaths for teachers. He led students' opposition to the bills, although they would pass later in 1949.[4]
During his Roosevelt College years, Washington came to be known for his stability. His friends said that he had a "remarkable ability to keep cool", reason carefully and walk a middle line. Washington intentionally avoided extremist activities, including street actions and sit-ins against segregated restaurants and businesses. Overall, Washington and other radical activists ended up sharing a mutual respect for each other, acknowledging both Washington's pragmatism and the activists' idealism. With the opportunities found only at Roosevelt College in the late 1940s, Washington's time at Roosevelt proved to be a pivotal point in his life and the city's history.[5]
Washington graduated in August 1949 with a B.A. degree. In addition to his activities at Roosevelt, he was a member of Phi Beta Sigma.[6][7]
[edit] Northwestern University School of Law
Washington then studied at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. During this time, Washington divorced from Dorothy Finch. By some accounts, Harold and Dorothy had simply grown apart after Washington was sent to war during the first year of his marriage. Others saw both as young and headstrong, the relationship doomed from the beginning. Another friend of Washington's deemed Harold "not the marrying kind." He would not marry again, but continued to have relationships with other women; those who knew his longtime secretary would later report her commenting "If every woman Harold slept with stood at one end of City Hall, the building would sink five inches into LaSalle Street".[8]
At Northwestern, Washington was the only black in his class. (He joined six women in the class, one of them being Dawn Clark Netsch). As at Roosevelt, he entered school politics. In 1951, his last year, he was elected treasurer of the Junior Bar Association (JBA). The election was largely symbolic, however, and Washington's attempts to give the JBA more authority at Northwestern were largely unsuccessful.[9]
On campus, Washington joined the Nu Beta Epsilon fraternity, largely because he and the other minorities which constituted the fraternity were blatantly excluded from the other fraternities on campus. Overall, Washington stayed away from the activism that defined his years at Roosevelt. During the evenings and weekends, he worked to supplement his GI Bill income. He graduated in 1952.[10]
[edit] Legislative political career
[edit] Working for Metcalfe
From 1951 until he was first slated for election in 1965, Washington worked in the offices of the 3rd Ward for the ward boss, former Olympic athlete Ralph Metcalfe. Metcalfe had been selected by Richard J. Daley, who had been elected party chairman in 1952. Daley's first moves were to strip power from William Dawson, who he feared would not vote with Daley's ideas. He replaced C.C. Wimbush, an ally of Dawson, on the party committee with Metcalfe, largely because of his intelligence, loyalty to Daley and Catholicism. Having replaced all of the members in the party citywide who would not bend to his will, Daley set to the creation of one of the last political machines in the country. Under Metcalfe's leadership and loyalty, the 3rd Ward ranked first in the city in the size of its Democratic plurality by 1961, a critical factor in Daley's mayoral election.[11]
While working under Metcalfe, Washington began to organize the 3rd Ward's Young Democrats (YD) organization. One of the primary purposes in doing so was to establish a key political base separate from the Democratic Machine, yet integral to the Machine's success in the predominately black wards. At YD conventions, the 3rd Ward would push for numerous black resolutions. Eventually, other black YD organizations would come to the 3rd Ward headquarters for advice on how to run their own organizations. Like he had at Roosevelt College, Washington avoided radicalism and preferred to work through the party to invoke change.[12]
While working with the Young Democrats, Washington met Mary Ella Smith. They dated for the next 20 years, and in 1983 Washington proposed to Smith in an attempt to silence questions about Washington's sexual orientation. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Smith said that she never pressed Washington for marriage because she knew Washington's first love was politics, saying, "He was a political animal. He thrived on it, and I knew any thoughts of marriage would have to wait. I wasn't concerned about that. I just knew the day would come."[13]
In 1960, with Lemuel Bentley, Bennett Johnson, Luster Jackson and others, Washington founded the Chicago League of Negro Voters. The organization was one of the first to challenge the Machine; in its first election, Bentley drew 60,000 votes for city clerk. After dropping out of view after the elections, it resurfaced as the group Protest at the Polls in 1963. Again, Washington participated in the background planning process, not risking losing support from the Machine, but still trying to further the progressive goals of 3rd Ward YDs. By 1967, the independent candidates had gained traction within the black community, winning several aldermanic seats; by 1983, the League of Negro Voters would be instrumental in Washington's run for Mayor. By then, the YDs had begun to lose influence in the party, as more black voters separated from the Machine and supported independents.[14]
[edit] Illinois House (1965–1976)
After Democratic party leaders failed to reapportion districts as required by the census every ten years, an at-large election was held in January 1965 to fill 177 seats in the Illinois House of Representatives. With the Republicans and Democrats combining to slate only 118 candidates, independent voting groups seized the opportunity to put up their own slates of candidates, separate from the Machine. The League of Negro Voters put together a "Third Slate" of 59 candidates, announcing the slate on June 27, 1964. Shortly afterwards, Daley put together a slate of his own, including Adlai Stevenson III and Washington. The Third Slate was then thrown out by the Illinois Election Board because of "insufficient signatures" on the nominating petitions. In response, the League issued an "orange ballot", urging voters to vote for three Republicans and fifteen Democrats. In the election, Washington received the second-largest amount of ballots in the election, behind Stevenson.[15]
Washington's years in the House were marked by constant tension with Daley and the rest of the Machine leadership. In 1967, he was ranked by the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI) as the fourth-most independent legislator in the house and named Best Legislator of the Year. His defiance of the "idiot card", a sheet of paper that directed legislators' votes on every issue, attracted the attention of party leaders, who moved to remove Washington from his legislative position.[16] Daley often told Metcalfe to dump Washington as a candidate, but Metcalfe did not want to risk losing the 3rd Ward's Young Democrats, who were more aligned to Washington than to the Machine.[17]
In one particular spat, Washington backed Renault Robinson, a black police officer and one of the founders of the Afro-American Patrolmen's League (AAPL). The aim of the APPL was to fight racism directed against minority officers by the rest of the predominately-white department. Soon after the creation of the group, Robinson was written up for minor infractions, suspended, reinstated, and then placed on the graveyard shift to a single block behind central police headquarters. Robinson approached Washington to fashion a bill creating a civilian review board, consisting of both patrolmen and officers, to monitor police brutality. Both black independent and white liberal legislators refused to back the bill, fearing to challenge Daley's stronghold on the police force.[17]
After Washington announced he would support the AAPL, Metcalfe refused to protect him from Daley. Washington believed he had the support of John Touhy, Speaker of the House and a former party chair. Instead, Touhy criticized Washington and then allayed Daley's anger. In exchange for the party's backing, Washington would serve on the Chicago Crime Commission, the group Daley formed to investigate the AAPL's charges. The commission promptly found the AAPL's charges "unwarranted". An angry and humiliated Washington admitted that on the commission, he felt like Daley's "showcase nigger".[17]
In 1969, Daley removed his name from the slate; only by the intervention of Cecil Partee, a party loyalist, was Washington's name placed back on the slate. That year, the Machine quietly supported Jim Taylor, a former professional boxer, Streets and Sanitation worker, and barely literate Daley figurehead, over Washington. With Partee and his own ward's support, Washington defeated Taylor.[16]
His years in the House were focused on becoming an advocate for black rights. He continued work on the Fair Housing Act, and worked to strengthen the state's Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). In addition, he worked on a state Civil Rights Act, which would strengthen employment and housing provisions in the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. In his first session, all of his bills were sent to committee or tabled. Like his time in Roosevelt College, Washington relied on parliamentary tactics (e.g., writing amendments guaranteed to fail in a vote) to enable him to bargain for more concessions.[18]
Washington also passed bills honoring civil rights figures. He passed a resolution honoring Metcalfe, his mentor. He also passed a resolution honoring James J. Reeb, a Unitarian minister who was beaten to death in Selma, Alabama by a segregationist mob. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., he introduced a bill aimed at making King's birthday a state holiday; it was tabled and later vetoed. It was not until 1973 that Washington was able, with Partee's help in the Senate, to have the bill enacted and signed by the governor.[19]
As the years passed, Washington voted more in line with the Machine, partially for fear of losing its support and patronage army. By 1975, the IVI ranked Washington 42nd in the House. On the most controversial votes (e.g. a 1967 bill that would ban picketing on public streets, aimed at anti-Daley protests by members of the civil rights movement), Washington had taken to not voting as a means of voicing his protest, without casting a vote against the Machine.[20]
In 1975, Washington was named chairman of the Judiciary Committee with the election of William A. Redmond as Speaker of the House. The same year, Partee, now President of the Senate and eligible for his pension, decided to retire from the Senate. Although Daley and Taylor declined at first, at Partee's insistence, Washington was slated for the seat and received the party's support. In 1976, Washington was elected to the Illinois Senate.[21]
[edit] Legal issues
In addition to Daley's strongarmed tactics, Washington's time in the Illinois House was also marred by problems with tax returns and allegations of not performing services owed to his clients. In her biography, Levinsohn questions whether the timing of Washington's legal troubles was politically motivated. In November 1966, Washington was re-elected to the house over Daley's strong objections; by January 1967, the second complaint in a string of six complaints against Washington had been filed. (The first had been filed earlier, in 1964.)[22]
A letter asking Washington to explain the matter was sent on January 5, 1967. After failing to respond to numerous summons and subpoenas, the commission recommend a five-year suspension on March 18, 1968. A formal response to the charges did not occur until July 10, 1969. In his reply, Washington said that "sometimes personal problems are enlarged out of proportion to the entire life picture at the time and the more important things are abandoned." In 1970, the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association ruled that Washington's license be suspended for only one year, not the five recommended; the total amount in question between all six clients was $205.[23]
In 1971, Washington was charged with failure to file tax returns for four years, although the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed to have evidence for nineteen years. (Top campaign aides would later say that nineteen was closer to the truth). Judge Sam Perry noted that he was "disturbed that this case ever made it to my courtroom"—while Washington had paid his taxes, he ended up owing the government a total of $508 as a result of not filing his taxes. Typically, the IRS handled such cases in civil court, or within its bureaucracy. Washington pleaded "no contest" and was sentenced to forty days in Cook County Jail, a $1,000 fine, and three years probation. (By comparison, a prominent, well-connected Chicago attorney was charged with not filing from 1973–1975; he was neither prosecuted, nor charged a penalty.)[24][25]
[edit] Illinois Senate (1976–1980)
[edit] Human Rights Act of 1970
In the Illinois Senate, Washington's main focus worked to pass the Human Rights Act of 1970. Legislators rewrote all of the human rights laws in the state, restricting discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, military status, sexual orientation, or unfavorable discharge from military service in connection with employment, real estate transactions, access to financial credit, and the availability of public accommodations."[26]
The bill's origins began in 1970 with the rewriting of the Illinois Constitution. The new constitution required all governmental agencies and departments to be reorganized for efficiency. Republican governor James R. Thompson reorganized low-profile departments before his re-election in 1978. In early 1979, during the early portions of Thompson's term and immediately in the aftermath of the largest vote for a gubernatorial candidate in the state's history, he called for the human rights reorganization.[27]
The Machine recognized a bill to enforce nondiscrimination as a threat to its existence. In addition, the bill would consolidate and remove some agencies completely, eliminating a number of political jobs the Machine could offer to its loyalists. In addition, many Democratic legislators would vote down a human rights measure backed by Thompson and other Republican legislators. For many years, human rights had been a campaign issue brought up and backed by Democrats.[27] The Machine also had no interest in helping to further shine Washington's record.[28]
Thompson's staffers brought the bill to Washington and other black legislators before it would be presented to the floor. He made adjustments in anticipation of some legislators' concerns regarding the bill, before speaking for it in April 1979. After the Machine spoke out against the bill, Washington brought in both black and white liberal opinion makers to explain how they felt about the bill. On May 24, 1979, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 59 to one, with two voting present and six absent. The victory in the highly conservative Senate was attributed by a Thompson staffer to Washington's "calm noncombative presentation".[28]
However, the bill stalled in the house. State Rep. Susan Catania insisted on attaching an amendment to allow women guarantees in the use of credit cards; her effort was assisted by Machine operatives Jim Taylor and Larry Bullock. In the meantime, Taylor and Bullock introduced over one hundred amendments, including the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, to try and stall the bill; this effort was assisted by Carol Moseley Braun, a civil rights advocate and liberal from Hyde Park. With Catania's amendment, the bill passed the House, but the Senate refused to accept the amendment.who ever uses thisstuff needs to stop its fake as you can see. On June 30, 1979, the legislature adjourned.[28]
Washington continued to work through the summer and fall supporting the bill. A governor's staffer recognized that it was crucial to have "a strong, articulate, respected black person to say that this was a good bill." In addition, Washington recognized the bill as the culmination of years of work in the legislature.
[edit] U.S. House (1980–1983)
In 1980, Washington was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Illinois' 1st congressional district.[6][29] Aware that the Democratic machine would challenge him in his bid for re-election in 1982, Washington spend much of his first term campaigning for re-election, often traveling back to Chicago to campaign. As a result, Washington missed many House votes, an issue that would come up in his campaign for Mayor in 1983.[30]
Washington's major congressional accomplishment involved legislation to extend the Voting Rights Act, legislation that opponents had argued was only necessary in an emergency. Others, including Congressman Henry Hyde, had submitted amendments designed to seriously weaken the power of the Voting Rights Act. Although he had been called "crazy" for railing against Ronald Reagan's deep cuts to social programs on the Congress floor, Associated Press political reporter Mike Robinson noted that Washington worked "quietly and thoughtfully" as the time came to pass the act. During hearings in the South regarding the Voting Rights Act, Washington asked questions that shed light on tactics used to prevent African Americans from voting (among them, closing registration early, literacy tests, and gerrymandering). After the amendments were submitted on the floor, Washington spoke from prepared speeches that avoided rhetoric and addressed the issues. As a result, the amendments were defeated, and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act Extension.[31]
By the time Washington faced re-election in 1982, he had cemented his popularity in the 1st Congressional District. Jane Byrne could not find one serious candidate to run against Washington for his re-election campaign. He had collected 250,000 signatures to get on the ballot, although only 610 signatures (0.5% of the voters in the previous election) were required. With his re-election to Congress locked up, Washington turned his attention to the next Chicago mayoral election.[32]
[edit] Mayor of Chicago (1984–1987)
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Harold Washington speaking at the commissioning of USS Chicago (SSN-721) in 1986.
In the February 22, 1983, Democratic mayoral primary, community organizers registered more than 100,000 new African American voters, while the white vote was split between the incumbent mayor Jane Byrne and the other challenger, Richard M. Daley, son of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. Washington won with 37% of the vote, versus 33% for Byrne and 30% for Daley.
Although winning the Democratic primary is normally tantamount to election in heavily Democratic Chicago, after his primary victory Washington found that his Republican opponent, former state legislator Bernard Epton (earlier considered a nominal stand-in), was supported by many white Democrats and ward organizations, including the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, Alderman Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak.[33] Epton's campaign referred to, among other things, Washington's conviction for failure to file income tax returns. (He had paid the taxes, but had not filed a return.) However, Washington appealed to his constituency in his mayoral political campaign, and stressed such things as reforming the Chicago patronage system and the need for a jobs program in a tight economy. In the April 12, 1983, mayoral general election, Washington defeated Epton by 3.7%, 51.7% to 48.0%, to become mayor of Chicago. Washington was sworn in as mayor on April 29, 1983, and resigned his Congressional seat the following day.
During his tenure as mayor, Washington lived at the Hampton House apartments in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Among the changes he made to the city's government was creating its first environmental-affairs department under the management of longtime Great Lakes environmentalist Lee Botts.
Washington's first term in office was characterized by ugly, racially polarized battles dubbed "Council Wars", referring to the then-recent Star Wars films. A 29–21 City Council majority refused to enact Washington's reform legislation and prevented him from appointing reform nominees to boards and commissions. Other first-term items include overall city population loss, increased crime, and a massive decrease in ridership on the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). This helped earn the city the nickname "Beirut on the Lake", and many people wondered if Chicago would ever recover or face the more permanent declines of other cities in the U.S. Midwest.
The twenty-nine, also known as the Vrdolyak Twenty-nine, was led by "the Eddies": Alderman Ed Vrdolyak, Finance Chair Edward Burke and Parks Commissioner Edmund Kelly. The Eddies were supported by the younger Daley (now State's Attorney), U.S. Congressmen Dan Rostenkowski and William Lipinski, and other powerful white Democrats.
During one of the first Council meetings, Harold Washington was unable to get his appointments approved. Harold Washington and the twenty-one ward representatives that supported him, walked out of the meeting after a quorum had been established. Vrdolyak and the other twenty-eight were able to appoint all of the boards and chairs. Later lawsuits submitted by Harold Washington and others were dismissed because it was determined that the appointments were legally made.
Washington ruled by veto. The twenty-nine could not get the thirtieth vote they needed to override Washington's veto; African American, Latino and white liberal aldermen supported Washington despite pressure from the Eddies. Meanwhile, in the courts, Washington kept the pressure on to reverse the redistricting of City Council wards that white Democrats had pushed through during the Byrne years. Finally, when special elections were ordered in 1986, victorious Washington-backed candidates gave him the 25–25 split he needed. His vote as chairman of the City Council enabled him to break the deadlock and enact his programs.
Washington defeated former mayor Jane Byrne in the February 24, 1987, Democratic mayoral primary by 7.2%, 53.5% to 46.3%, and in the April 7, 1987, mayoral general election defeated Vrdolyak (Illinois Solidarity Party) by 11.8%, 53.8% to 42.8%, with Northwestern University business professor Donald Haider (Republican) getting 4.3%, to win reelection to a second term as mayor. Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes (Chicago First Party), a Daley ally, dropped out of the race 36 hours before the mayoral general election. During Washington's short second term, the Eddies fell from power: Vrdolyak became a Republican, Kelly was removed from his powerful parks post, and Burke lost his power as finance chair.
[edit] Death
On November 25, 1987, at 11:00 a.m., Chicago Fire Department paramedics were called to City Hall. Alton Miller, Washington's press secretary, had been discussing school board issues when Washington suddenly slumped over on his desk, falling unconscious. After failing to revive Washington in his office, paramedics rushed him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Further resuscitation attempts failed, and Washington was pronounced dead at 1:36 p.m.[34] At Daley Plaza, Richard Keen, project director for the Westside Habitat for Humanity, announced Washington's official time of death to a separate gathering of Chicagoans. Initial reactions to the pronouncement of his death were of shock and sadness, as many African-Americans believed that Washington was the only top Chicago official who would address their concerns.[35]
Thousands of Chicagoans attended his wake in the lobby of City Hall between November 27 and November 29, 1987.[36] On November 30, Rev. B. Herbert Martin officiated Washington's "upbeat, hard-clapping funeral service" in Christ Universal Temple at 119th Street and Ashland Avenue in Chicago. After the service, Washington was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side of Chicago.[37]
Immediately after Washington's death, rumors about how Washington died began to surface. On January 6, 1988, Dr. Antonio Senat, Washington's personal physician, denied "unfounded speculations" that Washington had cocaine in his system at the time of his death, or that foul play was involved. Cook County Medical Examiner Robert J. Stein performed an autopsy on Washington and concluded that Washington had died of a heart attack. Washington had weighed 284 pounds (129 kg), and suffered from hypertension, high cholesterol levels, and an enlarged heart.[38] On June 20, 1988, Alton Miller again indicated that drug reports on Washington had come back negative, and that Washington had not been poisoned prior to his death. Dr. Stein stated that the only drug in Washington's system had been lidocaine, which is used to stabilize the heart after a heart attack takes place. The drug was given to Washington either by paramedics, or by doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.[39]
In protest of Washington's perceived "deification" by the city and citizens of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago student David Nelson painted Mirth & Girth, a caricature that depicted Washington wearing women's lingerie and holding a pencil.[40] The painting kicked off a First Amendment and civil rights controversy between Art Institute students and African-American aldermen. Nelson and the ACLU eventually split a US$95,000 (1994, US$138,000 in 2008) settlement from the city.[41]
Coincidentally, Bernie Epton, Washington's opponent in the racially charged 1983 general election, would follow him in death 18 days later, on December 13, 1987.
[edit] Legacy



Harold Washington Cultural Center, Harold Washington Library and Harold Washington Park
Despite the bickering in City Council, Washington seemed to relish his role as Chicago's ambassador to the world. At a party held shortly after his re-election on April 7, 1987, he said to a group of supporters, "In the old days, when you told people in other countries that you were from Chicago, they would say, 'Boom-boom! Rat-a-tat-tat!' Nowadays, they say [crowd joins with him], 'How's Harold?'!"[42]
In later years, various city facilities and institutions would be named or renamed after the late mayor to commemorate his legacy. The new building housing the main branch of the Chicago Public Library, located at 400 South State Street, was named the Harold Washington Library Center. The former Loop College in downtown Chicago was renamed Harold Washington College. In addition to the downtown facilities, the 40,000 square-foot Harold Washington Cultural Center was opened to the public in August 2004, in the historic South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville, at 4701 S. King Drive. Across from the Hampton House apartments where Washington lived, a city park was renamed Harold Washington Park, which was known for "Harold's Parakeets", a colony of wild parakeets that inhabited an ash tree in the park.
Wikipedia Online Article

Comment by Richard A. Young on February 25, 2010 at 9:51am

Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole, October 7, 1897 - February 24, 1975) led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until he died in 1975. Elijah Muhammad was born in rural Sandersville, Georgia, the sixth child of 13 children of Willie Poole, Sr. (1868–1942), a Baptist pastor, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958). Both were sharecroppers. By the fourth grade, Poole left school to join his family working in the fields. By 16 he had left home to work in factories and businesses in the area. In 1917, at 20, Poole married Clara Evans, later to be known as Sister Clara Muhammad.
In 1923 Poole and his extended family joined the Great Migration of African Americans leaving the rural southeast and moving to the industrial north. Poole later remembered that before the age of 20, he had witnessed three lynchings of blacks by whites in rural Georgia. He later said he had "seen enough of the white man's brutality to last me 26,000 years."[1] The Pooles settled in Hamtramck, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Through the 1920s and 30s, Poole struggled to find and keep work as the region's economy suffered during the Great Depression. During their years in the Detroit area, the Pooles had eight children, six boys and two girls.[2][3]
In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment by Wallace Fard Muhammad, held in a packed basement meeting room. After the speech, Poole said he approached Fard and asked if he was the redeemer. Fard responded that he was, but that his time had not yet come.[4][5] Poole soon became a disciple of Fard's and joined Fard Muhammad's movement, as did his wife and several brothers. Soon afterward, Poole changed his surname, first to Karriem, and later, at Fard's behest, to Muhammad, when he assumed leadership of the Temple.[6]
Little is definitively known about Fard. He claimed to have come from Mecca. The FBI believed him to be a petty criminal from California named Wallace Ford.[7] He was working as a door-to-door salesman in Detroit's black communities in addition to preaching.
By 1930 Fard had formed Allah's Temple of Islam (ATI) in Detroit and was attracting crowds and as many as 8,000 members with his proto-Islamic, Afro-centric teachings.[8] Fard taught dogma that, although drawing symbols, words, and few concepts from orthodox Islam, differed from it in various essentials, and added elements geared toward the Black nationalism started by Marcus Garvey. Fard conducted a series of lessons and correspondence with Muhammad and others, which eventually would be set down as the Nation of Islam's doctrine. The Temple continued to grow and organize. Muhammad soon became 'Supreme Minister' in the new organization. Fard developed the Fruit of Islam (leadership was given to Elijah's younger brother, Kalot Muhammad), Muslim Girls Training & General Civilization Classes and the University of Islam, to provide Islamist education outside the school system.
In 1932 a mentally unbalanced member of Fard's "voodoo cult" committed a highly publicized ritualized murder. Fard was initially arrested and then released by police on the condition that he leave Detroit. Fard headed to Chicago, where he started Temple No. 2. He turned over leadership of the growing Detroit group to Muhammad and the Allah Temple of Islam changed its name to Nation of Islam.[9] Muhammad and Fard continued to communicate until 1934, when Fard vanished and Muhammad was named 'Minister of Islam'. Following the final disappearance of Fard, Muhammad deified the temple's original leader, calling him an incarnation of God and predicting his eventual return to earth.[10][11]
In 1934, the Nation of Islam published its first newspaper, the Final Call to Islam, to educate and build membership. Temple children attended classes at the newly created ‘University’, but this soon led to challenges by Boards of Education both in Detroit and later, Chicago, which considered the children truants from the public school system. The controversy led to the jailing of several board members in 1934 and to violent confrontations with police. Muhammad received a sentence of probation for the altercations and the temple continued the practice.
Muhammad took control of the Temple only after bitter, internecine battles with other potential leaders, including his brother. In 1935, fearing for his life as these battles became increasingly fierce, Muhammad left Detroit and settled his family in Chicago. Soon, still facing death threats, Muhammad left his family there and traveled to Milwaukee (where he established Temple No. 3) and eventually Washington, D.C. Muhammad established Temple No. 4 in the District and spent much of his time studying at the Library of Congress.[4][12][13]
In 1942, Muhammad was arrested for failure to register for the draft. After he was released on bail, he fled Washington at the urging of his attorney, who feared a potential lynching, and returned to Chicago after seven years' absence. Muhammad was soon arrested again, charged with eight counts of sedition for instructing his followers not to register with Selective Service or serve in the Military. Found guilty, Muhammad served four years, from 1942 to 1946, in federal prison at Milan, Michigan. During that time his wife and trusted aides ran the organization and transmitted his messages to followers from his letters from jail.[14][15][16]
Following his return to Chicago, Muhammad was firmly in charge of the NOI. The organization had held its membership steadily during his years of imprisonment, and began to grow once he returned. From four temples in 1946, the NOI grew to 15 by 1955 and by 1959 there were 50 temples in 22 states.[17] One of Muhammad's top lieutenants during this period, generally credited with growing and expanding the NOI, was Malcolm X. Converted while in prison, Malcolm X became involved in the organization in 1952. He traveled across the country opening and organizing temples. During this time, NOI also began expanding economically. By the 1970s, the nation owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, cleaners, a printing plant, retail stores, real estate (including three apartment buildings in Chicago), a fleet of tractor trailers and farmland in Michigan, Alabama and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. The NOIs schools expanded until by 1974, children could attend its separatist schools in 47 cities in the U.S.[18] In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.[19]
Muhammad died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on February 24, 1975 from congestive heart failure. It was the day before Saviours' Day, celebrated in the NOI as the birthday of founder W. Fard Muhammad.
By most accounts Elijah Muhammad had 21 children by eight women. He had eight children with his wife, Clara Muhammad, and at least 13 other children with seven other women, mostly young secretaries for the Nation of Islam. These relationships were a source of great strain in his marriage. The perceived infidelity (some in the Nation of Islam considered the women to be additional wives [4]) came to be a source of disenchantment for Malcolm X and others in the Nation. They were disturbed because Muhammad preached the importance of faithfulness in marriage, and also because he allegedly used NOI funds to support the other women and natural children.[18][20][21] After Muhammad's death, 19 of his children filed lawsuits against the NOI and its accounts seeking status as heirs. Ultimately the court ruled that the NOI could keep the funds.[22][23] Muhammad and some of his followers began to feel that Malcolm X was grabbing too much of the public spotlight and showing too much ambition. By 1963 author Alex Haley had begun working with Malcolm X on his autobiography. There were serious tensions within the Nation and threats were made against Malcolm X's life. Following Malcolm X's controversial remarks about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Muhammad prohibited him from speaking to the press or making any speeches for 90 days. In March 1964 Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam to found a separate Muslim mosque in New York, and numerous supporters followed him. He converted to traditional Sunni Islam, and made public statements refuting numerous tenets of the NOI. Malcolm X declared his desire to work with other civil rights leaders, which he said had been prohibited by Muhammad. In 1965 he was assassinated in an attack at the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Three NOI members were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X. As envisioned by W.D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam departed from orthodox Islamic doctrines and practices. As leader of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad established that Fard was literally Allah, and Muhammad, his messenger on earth. Muhammad codified and expanded on Fard's teachings and writings in the doctrines of the NOI, teaching it in its schools and temples.
Like mainstream Islam, NOI members are expected to abstain from eating pork, from smoking and drinking, the use of drugs, profanity and gambling. They are expected to dress conservatively. Until recently, members did not fast during Ramadan and did not perform Salaat (Islamic prayer).[24][25]
The Nation of Islam teaches a black separatist doctrine. According to its beliefs, blacks were the original people on the Earth but had been tricked out of their power, conquered and oppressed by the Caucasian people via a global system of white supremacy.[26] According to NOI doctrine, the white race was produced through a series of genetic breeding experiments conducted by a bigheaded scientist known as "Dr. Yakub".[27][28][29]
Officially, the Nation of Islam seeks: "a full and complete freedom, equal justice under the law applied equally to all, regardless of race or class or color and equal membership in society with the best in civilized society." The NOI as formed by Muhammad is a nationalist organization seeking "complete separation in a state or territory of our own." [30] Researcher John L. Esposito has written: "Elijah Muhammad emphasized a "Do for Self" philosophy, appealing particularly to black youth, focusing on black pride and identity, strength and self-sufficiency, strong family values, hard work, discipline, thrift, and abstention from gambling, alcohol, drugs and pork."[31]
Muhammad opposed the "back to Africa" movement supported by Marcus Garvey and other 20th century black leaders. Instead he believed in seeking aid and support from independent African and Muslim nations to improve conditions for blacks in the United States. Eventually, Muhammad preached that Allah would destroy 'White America' and faithful followers of Islam in America would emerge as conquerors and settlers of a new world.[32]
While the organization had a board of directors and ministerial leadership, Elijah Muhammad was ultimately the unquestioned leader of the Nation of Islam. The man who led the Nation of Islam for more than 40 years was slender and stood only 5'6". He was soft-spoken and light-skinned with a thick Georgia accent. His speech in public was halting and he often struggled to find words. Some researchers have said that this made him a disarming figure for listeners, who responded to his earnestness and simplicity.[4]
Muhammad made the nation of Islam a public organization, putting converts as exhorters in the streets of urban areas, selling newspapers, writing weekly newspaper columns (his columns in the Pittsburgh Gazette brought in more letters to the editor than any other feature,[18]) and even parading the Fruit of Islam at times. Visitors to temples found smartly dressed members, usually wearing bow ties, and a militaristic discipline. They found a compelling vision of strong black leadership that was so often lacking in the world outside the temple.[33]
There are 6 to 8 million Muslims in the United States, and nearly 30 percent of them are African-American (nearly all converts from mainstream Christian denominations). During his lifetime, Muhammad saw Islam become an important presence in the black community and saw his organization grow to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of members. The Nation of Islam grew to become an enterprise with assets reportedly worth $75 million.
In addition to its particular brand of Islam, the Nation of Islam encouraged its followers to build stable families, become self-sufficient, live disciplined lives and reject drugs, alcohol and criminal activity. While temples have had mixed success in these areas, the Nation of Islam has encouraged tens of thousands of followers to avoid many of the traps of urban low-income life.[34] In the words of historian Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar "In many ways the Nation was on a civilizing mission to rebuild, redeem and rejuvenate a downtrodden and backward people."[35]
The Nation of Islam splintered into three factions after Elijah Mohammad's death.
Muhammad did not name a successor prior to his death, though he had wanted leadership to stay in his family. His son Warith Deen Muhammad had gained the support of leaders within the organization before his father passed away and was named as his father's successor at the organization's annual Saviours' Day celebration the day after his father died.[36] Warith Muhammad moved the NOI away from Black Nationalism toward a more mainstream Sunni Islam. It accepted white members, rejected the idea of W.D. Fard as Allah and disbanded the Fruit of Islam. Eventually his faction was renamed the American Society of Muslims and Warith Muhammad became a less polarizing figure. He delivered the first Muslim invocation in the U.S. Senate, and in 1993 gave an Islamic prayer during the first Interfaith Prayer Service of President Bill Clinton.[37][38] At his death in 2008 he was eulogized as "America's Imam"[39]
Louis Farrakhan left the Nation of Islam over disagreements with Warith Muhammad's direction. His new organization hewed more closely to Elijah Muhammad's ideology, including the tenet that W.D. Fard was Allah on earth. He reestablished the Fruit of Islam. He began publishing the Final Call newspaper and eventually called his organization the "Nation of Islam." As of 2010, he still leads the organization.
A third faction, the Lost Found Nation of Islam, was formed by Elijah Muhammad's son-in-law Silas Muhammad.
Wikipedia Online Article

Comment by Richard A. Young on February 24, 2010 at 10:39am

Malcolm X (pronounced /ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/) (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz[1] (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎), was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist.[2][3][4][5] To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans.[6] His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence.[7][8][9][10][11] He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.[12][13][14]
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. His childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance and his own experiences concerning race, played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in hustling and other criminal activities in Boston and New York. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's departure from the organization in March 1964.
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, after which he disavowed racism. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York.
Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Earl and Louise Little (née Louisa Norton).[15] His father was an outspoken Baptist lay speaker; he supported Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey and was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).[16] Malcolm never forgot the values of black pride and self-reliance that his father and other UNIA leaders preached.[17] Malcolm X later said that three of Earl Little's brothers, one of whom was lynched, died violently at the hands of white men.[18] Because of Ku Klux Klan threats, the family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter to Lansing, Michigan.
Earl Little was dark-skinned and born in Georgia.[19] Earl's second wife was Louise, with whom he had seven children, of whom Malcolm was the fourth. Earl and Louise Little's children's names were, in order: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Yvonne, and Wesley. He had three children (Ella, Mary, and Earl, Jr.) from his first marriage.[20]
Louise Little had been born in Grenada. Because her father was Scottish, she was so light-skinned that she could have passed for white. Malcolm inherited his light complexion from his mother and maternal grandfather.[21] Initially he felt his light skin was a status symbol, but he later said he "hated every drop of that white rapist's blood that is in me."[22] Malcolm X later remembered feeling that his father favored him because he was the lightest-skinned child in the family; however, he thought his mother treated him harshly for the same reason.[23] One of Malcolm's nicknames, "Red", derived from the tinge of his hair. According to one biographer, at birth he had "ash-blonde hair ... tinged with cinnamon", and at age four, "reddish-blonde hair".[24] His hair darkened as he aged, yet he also resembled his paternal grandmother, whose hair "turned reddish in the summer sun."[15] The issue of skin color and skin tone took on very significant implications later in Malcolm's life.[19]
In December 1924, Louise Little was threatened by Klansmen while she was pregnant with Malcolm. She recalled that the Klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because Earl Little's activities with UNIA were "spreading trouble".[25]
After they moved to Lansing, their house was burned in 1929, however the family escaped without physical injury. On September 28, 1931, Earl Little was fatally struck by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death an accident. The police reported that Earl Little was conscious when they arrived on the scene, and he told them he had slipped and fallen under the streetcar's wheels.[26] Malcolm X later remembered that the black community disputed the cause of death, believing there was circumstantial evidence of assault. His family had frequently been harassed by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group that his father accused of burning down their home in 1929. Some blacks believed the Black Legion was responsible for Earl Little's death. As Malcolm later wrote, "How could my father bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over?"[27]
Though Earl Little had two life insurance policies, his family received death benefits solely from the smaller policy. The insurance company of the larger policy claimed that his father had committed suicide and refused to issue the benefit.[28] Several years after her husband's death, Louise had her youngest son, Robert Little, by an unnamed partner.[29] In December 1938 Louise Little had a nervous breakdown and was declared legally insane. The Little siblings were split up and sent to different foster homes. The state formally committed Louise Little to the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she remained until Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 26 years later.[30]
Malcolm Little was one of the best students in his junior high school, but he dropped out after a white eighth-grade teacher told him that his aspirations of being a lawyer were "no realistic goal for a nigger."[31] Years later, Malcolm X would laugh about the incident, but at the time it was humiliating. It made him feel that there was no place in the white world for a career-oriented black man, no matter how smart he was.[31] After living with a series of white foster parents, Malcolm moved to Boston in February 1941 to live with his older half-sister, Ella Little Collins.[32][33]
Collins lived in Roxbury, a predominantly African-American middle-class neighborhood of Boston. It was the first time Little had seen so many black people. He was drawn to the cultural and social life of the neighborhood.[34]
In Boston, Little held a variety of jobs and found intermittent employment with the New Haven Railroad. Between 1943 and 1946, he drifted from city to city and job to job. He left Boston to live for a short time in Flint, Michigan. He moved to New York City in 1943. Living in Harlem, he became involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and steering prostitutes.[35] According to biographer Bruce Perry, Little occasionally engaged in sex with other men, usually though not always for money. In a Michigan boarding house, he raised rent money by sleeping with a gay transvestite.[36] Later, in New York, Little and some friends raised funds by being fellated by men at the YMCA where he lived.[36] In Boston a man paid Little to undress him, sprinkle him with talcum powder, and bring him to orgasm.[37] Perry notes that Little's motives appear to have been financial, but he could have earned money in other ways.[36]
In 1943, the U.S. draft board ordered Little to register for military service.[38] He later recalled that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers."[39] Military physicians classified him as "mentally disqualified for military service". He was issued a 4-F card, relieving him of his service obligations.[38]
In late 1945, Little returned to Boston. With a group of associates, he began a series of elaborate burglaries targeting the residences of wealthy white families.[40] On January 12, 1946, Little was arrested for burglary while trying to pick up a stolen watch he had left for repairs at a jewelry shop.[41] The shop owner called the police because the watch seemed too expensive for the average Roxbury resident. Little told the police that he had a gun on his person and surrendered so the police would treat him more leniently.[42] Two days later, Little was indicted for carrying firearms. On January 16, he was charged with larceny and breaking and entering, and eventually sentenced to eight to ten years in Massachusetts State Prison.[43]
On February 27, Little began serving his sentence at the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown. While in prison, Little earned the nickname of "Satan" for his hostility toward religion.[44] Little met a self-educated man in prison named John Elton Bembry (referred to as "Bimbi" in The Autobiography of Malcolm X).[45] Bembry was a well-regarded prisoner at Charlestown, and Malcolm X would later describe him as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect ... with words."[46] Gradually, the two men became friends and Bembry convinced Little to educate himself.[47] Little developed a voracious appetite for reading, and he frequently read after the prison lights had been turned off.[48]
In 1948, Little's brother Philbert wrote, telling him about the Nation of Islam. Like the UNIA, the Nation preached black self-reliance and, ultimately, the unification of members of the African diaspora, free from white American and European domination.[49] Little was not interested in joining until his brother Reginald wrote, saying, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison."[50] Little quit smoking, and the next time pork was served in the prison dining hall, he refused to eat it.[51]
When Reginald came to visit Little, he described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils. Afterward, Little thought about all the white people he had known, and he realized that he'd never had a relationship with a white person or social institution that wasn't based on dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Little began to reconsider his dismissal of all religion and he became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam. Other family members who had joined the Nation wrote or visited and encouraged Little to join.[52]
In February 1948, mostly through his sister's efforts, Little was transferred to an experimental prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, a facility that had a much larger library.[53] In late 1948, he wrote a letter to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to atone for his crimes by renouncing his past and by humbly bowing in prayer to Allah and promising never to engage in destructive behavior again. Little, who always had been rebellious and deeply skeptical, found it very difficult to bow in prayer. It took him a week to bend his knees. Finally he prayed, and he became a member of the Nation of Islam.[54] For the remainder of his incarceration, Little maintained regular correspondence with Muhammad.[55]
On August 7, 1952, Little was paroled and was released from prison.[43] He later reflected on the time he spent in prison after his conversion: "Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life."[56]
In 1952, after his release from prison, Little visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, Illinois.[57] Then, like many members of the Nation of Islam, he changed his surname to "X". In his autobiography, Malcolm X explained the "X": "The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know. For me, my 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."[58]
The FBI opened a file on Malcolm X in March 1953 after hearing from an informant that Malcolm X described himself as a Communist. Soon the FBI turned its attention from concerns about possible Communist Party association to Malcolm X's rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.[59]
In June 1953, Malcolm X was named assistant minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number One[60] in Detroit.[61] By late 1953, he established Boston's Temple Number Eleven.[62] In March 1954, Malcolm X expanded Temple Number Twelve in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[63] Two months later he was selected to lead the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven in Harlem.[64] He rapidly expanded its membership.[65] After a 1959 television broadcast in New York City about the Nation of Islam, The Hate That Hate Produced, Malcolm X became known to a much wider audience. Representatives of the print media, radio, and television frequently asked him for comments on issues. He was also sought as a spokesman by reporters from other countries.[66]
Beside his skill as an speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg).[67] According to one writer, Malcolm X was "powerfully built",[68] and another described him as a "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".[67]
From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation's teachings. He taught that black people were the original people of the world,[69] and that white people were a race of devils.[70] In his speeches, Malcolm X said that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent.[71]
While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. He proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people[72] as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa.[73] Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves.[74]
Malcolm X's speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, generally African Americans who lived in the Northern and Western cities who were tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality, and respect.[75] Many blacks felt that he articulated their complaints better than the civil rights movement did.[76][77]
Many white people, and some blacks, were alarmed by Malcolm X and the things he said. He and the Nation of Islam were described as hatemongers, black segregationists, violence-seekers, and a threat to improved race relations. Civil rights organizations denounced Malcolm X and the Nation as irresponsible extremists whose views were not representative of African Americans.[78]
Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement.[79] He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment and said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a "chump".[80][81] He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington".[82] He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive".[83]
Malcolm X has been widely considered the second most influential leader of the movement after Elijah Muhammad.[84] He was largely credited with increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 25,000 in 1963.[85][86] He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam.[87] Ali later left the Nation of Islam and became a Sunni Muslim, as did Malcolm X.[88]
On January 14, 1958, Malcolm X married Betty X (née Sanders) in Lansing, Michigan.[89] The two had been friends for about a year and—although they had never discussed the subject—Betty X suspected that he was interested in marriage. One day, he called and asked her to marry him.[90]
The couple had six daughters. Their names were Attallah, born in 1958 and named after Attila the Hun;[91] Qubilah, born in 1960 and named after Kublai Khan;[92] Ilyasah, born in 1962 and named after Elijah Muhammad;[93] Gamilah Lumumba, born in 1964 and named after Patrice Lumumba;[94] and twins, Malaak and Malikah, born in 1965 after their father's assassination and named for him.[95]
In early 1963, Malcolm X started collaborating with Alex Haley on The Autobiography of Malcolm X.[99] The book was not finished when he was assassinated in 1965. Haley completed it and published it later that year.[100][101]

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